Wednesday, September 28, 2011

I guess it is inevitable that with the success of The HungerGames that many writers will try to emulate the story. So now the dystopian books are all the craze well aside from the vampire books that is. What is dystopian you say? Well if Utopian is a perfect imaginary world then dystopian is the opposite. The world is bleak, depressing, there's violence and apparently not so much personal freedom. And of course being a book nerd, I try to follow this current trend as often as I can. Besides after being blown away by Katniss adventures, I'm so eager to read about other kick-ass heroines out there.

Let's start with Divergent. There's Beatrice or Tris who was born in an Abnegation family but choose to be Dauntless when she turns 16. Tris is pretty bad-ass (please pardon the use of harsh words but really she is) as she has to prove that she's worth it to be in the fearless faction. Of course the countless daredevil stunts and challenges can be somewhat tiring to read and unlike Katniss who's actually thrown into the games unwillingly because she's trying to protect her sister, Tris seems pretty..ehem.. selfish? So okay she left her family voluntarily to be in this cool faction and it reads like a long initiation where she got beat up severely in the beginning and later on prove her mettle. There's a big twist in the end and of course the prerequisite love interest is there.

Verdict: 4 stars.

Let's explore Blood Red Road next..shall we? Now meet Saba. Whoa she's very bad-ass! She's the most bad-ass of all the characters I've ever read. Similar to Katniss, Saba has to rescue her kidnapped twin brother who was taken as a human sacrifice by the Sun King. Unfortunately her journey takes a very dangerous detour when she was held captive and then forced to be this gladiator woman fighting in some sort of arena. The bad guys even shave her head! So bad ass! But I got tired of reading about all the sands and blood in her world that at one point I just abandoned it to read some other stuff. I'm sorry I'm a very picky reader! Dear me..

Verdict: 3 and half stars :) can I give a half star..it is my blog right?

Oh dear.. after reading about all those strong, feminist characters, I was severely disappointed by this one. Across the Universe is NOT a futuristic adventure more of a futuristic romance as oppose to paranormal romance. Amy is just your average red-headed girl who gets frozen and then shipped off into space and then meets a boy who happens to be the future leader of the ship that she's in. So this boy named Elder fell in love with Amy and well the story goes. It's basically your average run of the mill teen love story but the story really made me think about what's going to happen in the future. It basically give me the shivers hoping that humanity will not end up in a ship going nowhere.

Verdict: 3 stars.

Well finally we have Incarceron. Okay so eventhough the main character is a boy, there's a strong female character in here. Claudia is the daughter of the prison warden and she's strong willed and just a little bit kick-ass. But the story is actually about Finn and he's the long lost prince wrongly imprisoned in the vast endless prison that is Incarceron. Oooh..the setting of the book is scary and I feel so morosely unsettled reading about his attempts to escape. Apparently no one can! Quite depressing. I'm surprised they're making this into a movie. They even cast Taylor Lautner as Finn.

Verdict: 1 star - I don't particularly like the main character, he only managed to save himself and not his friends.

So there you have it folks..my review of dystopian books that I've read. Most of them are quite depressing so don't read it if you already feel down yourself (hehe).

Incarceron's cover is absolutely gorgeous. I was thinking of picking it up but now I'm thinking twice. LOL! I really loved Divergent, mostly 'cos I think Four is totally amazing. But I still think Hunger Games trumped the rest. HAHA! =P

I loved The Hunger Games when I read them earlier this year, and I didn't think there'd be anything to top them, but Divergent just blew me away. It was absolutely amazing. Still haven't read Across the Universe but I really want to.

I've read 2 of these four (Divergent and Across the Universe - gave both 4 stars) and have a further 1 on my TBB list (Blood Red Road). I'm enjoying the dystopian genre, although I'm avoiding The Hunger Games as a person I know who has similar tastes to me hated the final book and I don't wanna get sucked into a trilogy only to hate the last book.

In Across the Universe, I quite enjoyed the story, but what kept me from giving it 5 stars was the way that the characters would always be completely oblivious to things (that I considered very obvious) that were right in front of them. How it bugged me!

With Divergent, I felt that the long initiation period was interesting, but it prevented the story from really having a full plot beyond the initiation, if you catch my drift.

Either way, with both of them, I'm looking forward to getting me mitts on the sequels!

I have read all those books and I liked all of them. The Hunger Games, Incarceron and Blood Red Road are my favorite.I think I need to read Divergent again because people say how amazing it is and I just don't get it. I gave it 4 stars too.

I found Across the Universe to be rather entertaining and I did not find it overly influenced by romance at all. Any indications in that direction felt more like a friendship and/or curiosity more than anything. I enjoyed the drama surrounding the ship issues etc..